A Comic Book-style page

[Martha]

While playing around with a basic sketch effect (desaturate, invert, color dodge, blur, etc.), I hit on this way to make a comic booK-like effect using a Threshold Adjustment Layer. I made Sophie a page for her scrapbook using some of her birthday party photos.
Martha
http://www.elementsvillage.com/gallery/files/8/3/4/0/sophie_s-birthday_comic-sty_thumb.jpg (http://www.elementsvillage.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=9755&c=4)
http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/gallery/view_img.php?id=32505

[ladybug]

O i really like this. You did a fantastic job.

[elwoodsusanm]

Neat :) Mine never look this good :(
Sue

[Deborah]

OMGosh that is brilliant. What a clever idea. So real.
I love what you did!!!! This brithday she will remember always.

Thank you for the instructions, I'm going to give it another try.
I've tried several times but never had good results with the tutorial.

Very Nice Job Martha

[Chesney]

LOVE it!! This is so fun and so perfect for a child's birthday party. Your creativeness never ceases to amaze me!

[bfcoughlin]

Very cool effect--and I love with you did with it from a scrapbook point of view.

[NMarti]

Martha what an excellent idea! I love it!

[Sid1962]

This is fantastic ! Can you provide a link to the instructions?

Thanks,

Sid1962

[Martha]

Thanks, all, for the kind comments.
I did not have a tutorial. I used what I have done a hundred times for the sketch and added to it. There are a lot of sketch tutorials posted in the Forum. There very well may be a tutorial for the whole process somewhere since I'm sure other more creative minds have come up with the same thing!

1. Make any basic adjustments to your photo. It really doesn't seem to matter a whole lot --one of my photos was a little blurry and it turned out fine.
2. Make a copy of the background layer-- just in case.
3. Make another copy and desaturate it (Ctrl+Shift+U in a PC).
4. Copy this black and white layer and invert it (Ctrl +I)
Set the Blend Mode to "Color Dodge".
5. Apply a Gaussian Blur (Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur). Use whatever looks right to you. I used 15 for some and 20 for others.


Here is where I experimented---and I actually wrote it down!!

6. Apply a Threshold Adjustment Layer to the top layer. Move the sliders to the right until your image looks right.

7. Copy the color layer under the black and white layer and move it to the top. Change the blend mode to hard light. That's all there was to it.

I added a black stroke to the photos aand no drop shadow or anything else. The speech bubbles are Custom Shapes.

I want to do another and make it more of a comic book type layout. It was getting so late that I didn't have time last night (well, this morning actually) to try

Martha

[Deborah]

I didnt have all the steps before.

THANK YOU Martha for writing them down....I'm going to give this a try.
Deborah

[christellf]

Great result & creative idea with this technique.
Christell

[Martha]

Deborah, do post your creation!
Thank you, Christell. I had a lot of fun with it.
Martha

[hfgerena]

Hum!!! I realy like it, that's great.

[JulieM]

Wow, that's an exceptional piece! Well done, Martha!

[Martha]

Thank you, H. F. Gerena and Julie. I appreciate the comments.
Martha